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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“No, how did I ever deflect something like this?”
After clearing the Headless Armored Cavalier, I grunted as I moved the spear the cavalier had been using to the horse. I planned to use this huge spear and the severed horse head as proof of subjugation.
It was amazing to me that I could deflect such a brutal weapon being swung at full force while riding a horse, without any issues other than being pushed back a little.
In reality, wouldn’t I have been sent flying along with the weapon the moment I got hit by it, let alone deflecting it?
The horse was still standing obediently where I had tied the reins, waiting for me. After stroking its mane a few times, I hung the weapon on the side of the saddle. On the opposite side, I tied the severed horse head.
Although both were weights that I had to carry with difficulty, the horse seemed unbothered.
‘One down for now.’
I swiftly mounted the horse and grabbed the reins. Although I had cleared the Headless Armored Cavalier, it wasn’t time to return to the knighthood yet. There was still something left to do before that.
Finding the item to lure out that lord bastard.
I rode the horse towards a nearby mountain. This time as well, it took nearly half a day just for the journey.
When I set out, the sun was clearly above my head, but by the time I reached my destination, it was slowly sinking beyond the horizon along with a crimson sunset.
I tied the horse to a nearby tree again and approached a massive rock. Behind this huge rock was the entrance to the dungeon I was looking for.
If you progressed through the game in the standard way, discovering the secret behind this rock would happen after entering the middle of the story. Before that, there was no reason to come here in terms of the story.
Unless you ignored the story progression and only did sub-quests nonstop.
However, if you already knew the secret, entering was simple. I took out a round-shaped stone from my pocket. It was an item dropped by the Headless Armored Cavalier.
This was the key to unlocking the seal of the dungeon entrance. While a wild horse was grazing on grass, it accidentally swallowed this along with the grass and became corrupted by its power, giving birth to the Headless Armored Cavalier.
Holding that, I walked behind the rock and rummaged through the overgrown grass. In the game, you had to burn this place with a fire spell to reveal the secret, but now I could remove the grass without necessarily setting it on fire.
After clearing away all the grass, something was revealed beneath the soil. It was a stone tablet with a circular hole in the center and complex characters engraved on both sides.
The characters written on the tablets were a warning. To summarize, it said, “If you can read these words, do not break the seal of the demon.”
‘It won’t be of any use though.’
After all, those who come all the way to the outskirts of the empire to explore a place like this wouldn’t back down after seeing such a warning.
I inserted the item dropped by the Headless Armored Cavalier into the circular hole of the stone tablet. The item fit in seamlessly without any gaps. Then, the stone tablet emitted a faint white light.
I stepped back a little and observed the rock. The rock vibrated with a rumbling sound, and cracks began to form on its surface. The cracks, which started from the bottom, gradually grew larger and soon spread throughout the entire rock.
Before long, with a crashing sound, the rock collapsed. The shattered rock fragments rolled down the mountainside. Dust rose nearby.
‘Finally.’
I waved my arm to disperse the dust. In the place where the rock had collapsed, a dungeon entrance large enough for exactly one person to enter could be seen. The item I was looking for was inside.
After confirming that there were no monsters nearby, I returned to the horse and took a torch from the saddle.
In the game, you could just put it in a quickslot and take it out by scrolling the mouse wheel, and it would come out lit. But now, of course, that wasn’t possible, so I had to light it myself.
It was my first time using flint and steel, so it took some fumbling before I managed to light it.
‘There’s an air conditioner, an electric fan, and even fluorescent lights, but why isn’t there a lighter?’
Was it because it was a world where fire magic existed?
Holding the torch in my left hand and drawing the Blood-Stained Sword with my right, I stood in front of the dungeon entrance. I also had a bag filled with food tied to my waist in case of unforeseen circumstances.
In the game, it was a dungeon of a suitable size, but now I didn’t know how large it had become. Just like how the time it took to reach the Headless Armored Cavalier’s boss field had increased significantly.
I slowly entered. The musty smell unique to an old space wafted towards me.
‘Doesn’t seem to be any different from the game…’
There might be differences on the inside, but at least from the outside, it looked exactly the same as in the game. I continued walking in, following the passage.
This was a place where, a very long time ago, the priests and holy knights of the Holy Kingdom had fought a bloody battle against a demon but ultimately failed to subjugate it. As a second-best measure, they sacrificed their lives to seal the cave itself.
The reason for the engraved warning not to break the seal was because of that. If a demon powerful enough for the Holy Kingdom to fail in subjugating it were to be released into the world again, who knew what kind of catastrophe would befall.
However, there was one fact that the Holy Kingdom had misunderstood about that demon. It was that the demon sealed here had also suffered tremendous damage while fending off the attacks of the priests and holy knights.
Its flesh had been shattered into pieces and scattered throughout the dungeon, and its body had been purified by divine power. Even though it had succeeded in repelling the priests and holy knights by struggling with all its might, the demon itself had also suffered severe wounds.
Most of its power had been dispersed, making natural recovery impossible, so even though a passing wild horse had swallowed the key to the seal, it had been unable to break the seal until now.
Therefore, to prevent itself from being annihilated and returning to hell, it had no choice but to possess a book and wait for the day when someone would enter here and break the seal.
If the Holy Kingdom had known that, they would have persisted until the end, even if it meant making more sacrifices. It was an unfortunate turn of events.
‘…That’s a story I can hear later.’
And from none other than the demon that had been sealed here.
It was another characteristic of Brightest Darkness 4. A quest could be cleared under various conditions, so to see the entire story, it was essential to play through multiple times.
ㅡGroan…
From the other side of the cave, a completely deflated groan was heard. I aimed the Blood-Stained Sword. Now it was beginning.
Something walked unsteadily from afar, making a groaning sound. Its flesh was completely rotten, wearing a rusted armor and holding a sword with all its teeth missing.
It was the corpse of a holy knight who had fought the demon here long ago. The demon’s flesh, which had been scattered into pieces, had attached to those corpses one by one, reviving them as undead like this.
Although it had become a rotten corpse now, as if to show off the fact that it was once a holy knight, the undead assumed a stance, staggering.
I also temporarily leaned the torch against the right side of the floor and gripped the Blood-Stained Sword with both hands. The holy knight undead raised the sword high above its head and charged forward, leaning its body forward.
I rolled to the right to dodge the attack and swung my sword at its side. As the undead’s worn-out sword hit the ground with a clang that echoed through the cave, its side burst open.
Regardless of whether its side was cut off or not, the undead turned its body and pounced again without any concern. This was the annoying aspect of undead-type mobs. They didn’t get stunned at all even when hit by attacks.
Unless it was a huge attack that could send the entire body flying far away, like a giant hammer or greatsword, they didn’t receive any stun from ordinary weapons.
It was easy to think of them as being in a constant super armor state against normal weapons.
ㅡClang!
‘But parrying works on them.’
After exchanging a few deflections back and forth, seeing the creature’s movements slow down, I took out a small shield in my left hand and swatted away the swinging sword.
With a light clang, as the creature’s body staggered, I immediately thrust the Blood-Stained Sword into its neck and twisted.
With a snap, its head rotated 180 degrees, and with the sound of flesh tearing, it was ripped off, spinning around. The headless body flailed its arms and collapsed, while the bodiless head chattered its mouth from a distance.
The name was “Combat Fatigue,” but I was curious as to why combat fatigue accumulated even for the undead who were already corpses. However, I didn’t want to have unnecessary questions. I just used it because it was possible.
I picked up the torch I had placed next to me and tapped the corpse with my foot to check if the item I was looking for had dropped. But there was nothing noticeable.
‘Tsk, a miss.’
It seemed like I would have to wander around here for a while. If I was lucky, the first two I encountered would each drop one, allowing me to head straight to the book.
The sound of corpses staggering was heard from afar. Well, it was fine. I only needed to collect a total of 2 anyway. I could easily obtain 2 with just a few minutes of investment.
In the past, when I tried to clear an achievement by collecting all 100, I almost threw my mouse, but compared to that, this was nothing.
ㅡGroan…
This time, two undead wearing priest robes walked out. I put the torch down again and grabbed the Blood-Stained Sword with both hands.
The basic principle of all gacha is to keep rolling until you get what you want.
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Gatch ya